Jeroen Dijsselbloem

Greece needs to deliver on its reforms to send a positive signal to debt markets before a meeting of euro zone finance ministers next month, European Union Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Thursday.

Greece has not made enough progress in reforms agreed last year to get a 750 million euro ($854.4 million) bonus from the euro zone, but could still complete the changes before the bloc's finance ministers discuss the issue on March 11, the European Commission said on Wednesday

Eurozone finance ministers agreed to introduce by 2022 new rules that would facilitate the restructuring of public debt in the bloc's countries, the chairman of the Eurogroup Mario Centeno said on Tuesday.

New rules on so-called single limb Collective Action Clauses will be introduced by 2022, Centeno said after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels. [Reuters]

The Eurogroup indicated on Monday that it will be green-lighting the Greek budget, though a final decision is not expected until early next month.

Greece's bailout programs were too long, too hard and led to many failures, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the former head of the Eurogroup, conceded in an interview with the French service of Euronews.

The Greek economic rescue program was "very hard, with many failures," the former head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem has told Euronews in an interview.

Pensioners will have to wait until the December 2 Eurogroup meeting to find out whether their pensions will be cut further a few days later, sources from Athens say following contacts with the European creditors.

Eurozone officials have told the government that they will probably have insufficient data before December to make such a decision, the same sources said.

The Eurogroup intends to wait for the submission of the Greek state budget for 2019 before examining whether the pension cuts scheduled for January 2019 could be suspended, according to a senior eurozone official, who also explained the pattern of the post-bailout monitoring process.

Eurozone countries have asked for too much from the Greek people in return for international bailout loans, former Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in an interview on Dutch television on Saturday.

Yanis Varoufakis' handling of the Greek crisis was "catastrophic" and the former finance minister constantly tried to undermine direct negotiations with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to find a solution, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, former president of the Eurogroup, has said.